Basic Rights Individual Rights and Freedoms

- Constitution of Suriname

Basic Rights Individual Rights and Freedoms

CHAPTER V
BASIC RIGHTS, INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

Article 8

All who are within the territory of Suriname have an equal claim to protection of person and property.
No one may be discriminated against on the grounds of birth, sex, race, language, religious origin, education, political beliefs, economic position or any other status.

Article 9

Everyone has a right to physical, mental and moral integrity.
No one may be submitted to torture, degrading or inhuman treatment or punishment.

Article 10
Everyone has in case of infringement of his rights and freedoms a claim to an honest and public treatment of his complaint within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial judge.

Article 11
No person may be withdrawn against his own will from the judge whom the law assigns to him.

Article 12

Everyone can have legal assistance before the courts
The law regulates the rendering of legal aid to those who are financially weaker.

Article 13
Loss of civil rights or the general forfeiture of all the goods of an offender may not be inflicted as a penalty or as a consequence of a penalty for any crime.

Article 14
Everyone has a right to life. This right is protected by the law.

Article 15
No one shall be obliged to do forced or compulsory labor.

Article 16

Everyone has the right to personal liberty and safety.
No one will be deprived of his freedom, other than on grounds and according to proceedings determined by law.
Everyone who is deprived of his freedom has a right to a treatment in accordance with human dignity.

Article 17

Everyone has a right to respect of his privacy, his family life, his home and his honor and good name.
No dwelling may be entered against the occupant’s will except when commissioned by an authority which has the power to give that order by virtue of law and subject to the conditions prescribed by the law.
The secrecy of letters, telephone and telegraph is inviolable except in the cases described by law.

Article 18
Everyone has the right of freedom of religion and philosophical conviction.

Article 19
Everyone has the right to make public his thoughts or feelings and to express his opinion through the printed press or other means of communication, notwithstanding everyone’s responsibility according to the law.

Article 20
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful association and assembly, taking into consideration the rules to be determined by law for the protection of public order, safety, health and morality.

Article 21

The right to demonstrate peacefully is acknowledged.
The use of that right can, for the protection of public order, safety, health and morality, be submitted to limitation through the law.

Article 22

Everyone has the right to submit written petitions to the public authorities.
The law regulates the procedure for handling them.

Article 23
In case of war, danger of war, state of siege or state of emergency or for reasons of state security, public order and morality, the rights mentioned in the Constitution may be submitted to limitations by law, which will be in force during a certain time, depending on the circumstances, with due respect for the international rules applicable in that matter.